Harvest Sunday

Sundays during harvest are catch up days.  Reynald spends most of the day servicing the combines and trucks.  He goes over everything to make sure there isn't something that one of us have missed.  Alicia spent a couple hours helping him with this project.

I spend the day catching up on house work and laundry, and spend some time in the kitchen, getting a few things ready for lunches for the coming week.  If I'm lucky, I can sneak in a little yard work when no one is watching!

We had a terrible wind yesterday, and my poor little pear tree suffered a huge loss.  Half of the tree is lost.  It's pretty discouraging, as I have never had this much fruit set on.  I guess that was part of the problem, the branches were so heavy with fruit, that it didn't take much to take down the branches.

One huge branch broke off, and a smaller one too.  And, my dad noticed that another large branch is cracked and ready to split off.  That will happen on Tuesday, when another big wind storm is predicted to happen.

There was so much nice fruit on this tree.  I just hate to see it go.

My pathetic little peach tree is giving its all before it dies off completely!  There's hardly anything left to this tree.

But look at the beautiful fruit that is on the one branch that is left!  It's not quite ready to harvest.

We harvested our garlic crop today.  It did well!  I put the wheel barrow in the barn tonight, and it smells so good....like garlic and soil!

A whole wheel barrow of garlic!

The heads are really nice.

Alicia and and I hand cut some wheat, with a scythe that we borrowed for our neighbor Les.  We are planning to use the wheat for decoration for Roni and David's wedding in October.  We both agreed that a 30 foot header, on a John Deere combine, was a much more efficient way to harvest!

These hand scythes are so cool.  One of them was hand made by Les's father, Eldon.  

Little Eric with a full load of cut wheat stalks that will be made in to sheaves in a couple weeks.

Baxter is always around to supervise!

The bee garden was getting a little too messy for my taste, so today I decided to mow it all down!  I am watering the area now, in hopes that everything that went to seed, will sprout and be pretty for fall.  It's an experiment, which may or may not work.  Stay tuned!!!!

With the wheat harvested, and now the bee garden mowed down, it looks so bare!

I'll have to hand pull the plants under the windmill and mixed in with the plow.

I took this photo on Saturday.  Thought it was kind of a neat shot, so I included it here, even though it wasn't Sunday work!!  Tomorrow we are back at it.  I really love my job!!!

Both combines and Alicia with her tractor and the bank out wagon.  You can see that it was a windy day!

Harvest Ride Buddy

Baxter has been my harvest ride buddy every day since we started cutting!

It was hot today, so we spent most of our day in the truck where the air conditioner kept us cool.  I took a photo of the outside air temp gauge on the truck this afternoon.  Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, but then it cools back down to the mid to high 80's for high temperatures. Welcome relief for plants, animals, humans and machines.

When I was younger, this temperature would not have phased me. Now it kinda does! 

Baxter spends a fair amount of time in this position in the truck!  He loves to watch for birds and cows and anything else that may move as we drive along. 

He also likes this position because there are two air vents that blow cool air on to his belly!

Baxter is a great ride buddy and he makes me get out of the truck and take walks several times each day, if it isn't 100 degrees out!  

The Way We Were

Last year I found these photos and had Alicia scan them in to the computer somehow.  I have no idea how stuff like this is done.  Anyway, I think they are so cool  This is what harvest was like when I was a kid.  In 40 years, the way we farm and the equipment we use, has changed significantly.  It's so interesting to look back, and then go to work in the morning, thankful for air conditioned cab, satellite guided combines, and semi trucks that are comfortable and efficient to drive.

This is John Deere 36B combine.  These used to be pulled by horses.  It was a huge advancement when tractors came along and pulled these machines instead

Before the advent of the self propelled machine, the tractor and combine just had to drive on the opening round of standing grain.  You can see the header is out to the side of the machine, instead of in front as with with self propelled machines.

Note the sun shade on the tractor.  Also on the combine.  Before someone figured out how to run the header controls from the tractor, a man had to stand on the combine and raise and lower the header height.  

This is the field we call the home place.  You can just barely make out the building in the distance where I grew up.  This photo was taken before I was born though!

You can see from this photo, that the combines had a leveling mechanism to keep the machine level for better thrashing.  The header would follow the contour of the hill while the machine stayed level.  

This is a shot of the header, taken from the machine.  It cut a 20 foot swath.  The grain traveled along the header with the help of a draper, that took it in to the machine where it will be thrashed.  

The thrashed grain was stored in a 60 bushel holding tank, called a bulk tank.  The chaff and straw came out the back end of the machine.  Just like it does today.

Today however, we have a 30 foot header, on a machine that has a 300 bushel capacity bulk tank and can travel at a much higher rate of speed, has an air conditioned cab and is guided by GPS.  

This isn't our truck, but it is similar to the size we all had and drove.

You can see the grain coming out the tail gate of the truck.  This truck hauled about 250 bushels.  I am hauling about 1,000 bushels with Starbucks.

And finally, this is a photo of my grandma Eleanora and then one of me, standing in the same field many years later!

Grandma Eleanor in the field at the home place.

And here I am, in the same field!

Presenting.......

our 2016 Harvest Crew!!!!!

New to the crew this year is Scott, driving Double Shot!

Alicia's expertise with the tractor and bank out wagon is unsurpassed.  We can't do this without her!!  Especially this year with not one, but two combines to keep up with.

And the combine crew....they look the same, they dress the same, and they drive the same combine!

Wait, is it this way....

or this way?

And finally, me and my dog in Starbucks....

There were thunder heads playing around to the west, north and east, most of the day.  Hopefully they won't decide to park over our area tonight.  As a result of the thunder heads, the sky and clouds were especially beautiful today.  Can't stop taking photos!

Alicia loading up Starbucks.

She timed herself and she can load a truck in 80 seconds!

Combines and clouds

More combines and clouds.....

Still more combines and clouds!  Alicia unloaded both machines, right after they turned the corner.  You can see that they were both full!!

So, another day, another dollar, or maybe even two!

Rain delay

We  had a little bit of rain this morning, enough to shut us down for the remainder of the day.  I was able to haul one load of grain to the elevator, and then the clouds opened up for just a few minutes, but it was enough to halt our progress for today.  The sun and the wind came out to play this afternoon, so we will be able to get back after it tomorrow.

Dark storm clouds gathering on the horizen.

Racing to get a few bushels cut.

Both machines coming over the hill.

Rain on my windshield!

We entertained a farm/city swap this afternoon.  My former classmate, Andres Tapia and his three sisters, a cousin, a spouse and his niece and hephew came for an afternoon of harvest.  Unfortunately we were mostly rained out, but by late afternoon we were able to take everyone in the party for a short combine ride and answer lots of questions about dry land wheat farming.   It was such a wonderful afternoon, full of lively conversation.  What a treat to get to spend time with this delightful and interesting folks.

Cousins in a wheat field....one from Miami and one from Mexico!

The Tapia family that came to visit us today.

Tapia family plus our family!

Nora and Zoe, mom and daughter.

Andres acting the farmer role next to the combine!

Won't he have stories to tell back home in Miami!!!

Another group shot!  Such a fun day!!!

Tomorrow we're back to work in the harvest field.  The forecast for the next several days is sunny and warm so we should make good progress.